Canada: Prof. blasts federal plan to recruit francophone immigrants because Newcomers end up speaking English

[Stan & Sandy Anonby]

Castonguay is perfectly right!

Stan

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harold Schiffman" <hfsclpp at gmail.com>
To: "lp" <lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2007 11:10 AM
Subject: Canada: Prof. blasts federal plan to recruit francophone immigrants 
because Newcomers end up speaking English


> Tuesday, December 18, 2007
>
> Prof. blasts federal plan to recruit francophone immigrants Newcomers
> end up speaking English
>
> Kate Jaimet,  CanWest News Service
> Published: Tuesday, December 18, 2007
>
>
> OTTAWA -- The federal government is pursuing an "irresponsible" policy
> of recruiting francophone immigrants to minority French communities in
> English Canada, when it should be sending them instead to the more
> robust francophone regions of Quebec, New Brunswick, and eastern
> Ontario, a University of Ottawa professor argues in a forthcoming
> journal article. In "The contribution of immigration to francophone
> populations outside Quebec," to be published in the journal
> Francophonies d'Amerique, adjunct professor Charles Castonguay argues
> a large proportion of francophone immigrants become anglicized when
> they move to small French communities in Canada, and end up bolstering
> the English-speaking population rather than the French-speaking
> minority.
>
> "It's a stupid program," Mr. Castonguay said in an interview. "We're
> wasting our bloody money here, because we're actually recruiting
> anglophones."  But Commissioner of Official Languages Graham Fraser
> defended the immigration policy. "I think it's absolutely critical for
> the future of French-speaking minority communities across Canada that
> they have access to immigration, to a stream of newcomers," Mr. Fraser
> said. Francophonies d'Amerique, a journal published by the University
> of Ottawa, will print Castonguay's article in January -- the same
> month former New Brunswick premier Bernard Lord gives his
> recommendations to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on minority language
> policy.
>
> Immigration has been a component of language policy at least since
> 2001, when Parliament passed the Immigration and Refugee Protection
> Act, identifying one of the objectives of immigration as: "to support
> and assist the development of minority official languages communities
> in Canada."  In 2003, then-intergovernmental affairs minister Stephane
> Dion dedicated $9-million over five years toward recruiting immigrants
> to minority-language communities. And in September, 2006, the
> Conservative government furthered the policy by launching their
> "Strategic Plan to Foster Immigration to Francophone Minority
> Communities."
>
> The target was to attract between 8,000 and 10,000 French-speaking
> immigrants annually to francophone communities outside Quebec. Perhaps
> as a measure of the success of these programs, the census results show
> the number of francophone immigrants settling outside Quebec rose to
> 9,350 between 2001 and 2006 from 7,500 between 1996 and 2001.  But Mr.
> Castonguay says his analysis shows that within about 20 years of
> immigrating to Canada, a large proportion of francophones outside
> Quebec adopt English as their primary language. "We're not really
> helping the French minorities by recruiting international immigrants
> to go to places where they're going to assimilate (to English)
> anyways," he said.
>
> In his article, Mr. Castonguay used data from the 2001 census to look
> at the language most commonly used at home by francophone immigrants
> aged 45 to 54. Reasoning that most immigrants arrive at about age 30,
> this age bracket would identify their switch in language after 15 to
> 25 years in Canada, Mr. Castonguay said.  He found in six provinces --
> Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and B.C. --
> more than 50% of francophone immigrants in that age bracket spoke
> mainly English at home.
> The rate stood at 43% in P.E.I., 46% in Manitoba, and 20% in New 
> Brunswick.
>
> Equivalent data from the 2006 census are not yet available, but a
> report by Statistics Canada on Dec. 11 found the percentage of people
> outside Quebec who use French as their main home language declined to
> 2.5% in 2006, from 2.7% in 2001 -- continuing a downward trend that
> has existed since 1971.  Based on his results, Mr. Castonguay argues
> the federal government should redirect its immigration program to
> steer francophone immigrants toward Quebec, New Brunswick, and Eastern
> Ontario, where anglicization rates are lower and they have a better
> chance of both retaining their own language, and augmenting the
> French-speaking community.
>
> Ottawa Citizen
>
> Copyright (c) 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest
> MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
>
> http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=180580
>
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